Toward a Model of Environmental Activism

The goals of this study were first to operationalize the notion of activism by using self-reported behaviors and second to propose and test a model of environmental activism. 733 14-92 yr olds participated in the study. The results show that the Activism Scale is an acceptable measure of environmental activism. Furthermore, the proposed motivational model of environmental activism was supported by a path analysis of the data. Within the model, individuals' levels of autonomous motivation predicted the perceived responsibility of different organizations to prevent health risks, the amount of information people obtain from various sources, and the perceived importance of problems in the environment. In turn, those latter variables predicted the perception of environmental health risks. Finally, the perception of environmental health risks predicted environmental activism. The model demonstrates the importance of autonomous motivation in the prediction of environmental activists' behaviors and the central role perceived ecological risks play in the determination of environmental activism.